Kitchen Tip Tuesday

I've decided to participate in Tammy's Kitchen Tip Tuesday today. I have tried several of her recipes and have loved them all. I'm not sure if I'll have a tip every week, but we'll see how it goes!

Freezing spinach puree:


I've started buying bunches of fresh spinach-preferably organic, and making a puree out of them to freeze. It takes about 30 minutes to chop it up into the puree (just spinach and water) and it's well worth the time and effort. One bunch gives me about 2 cups, maybe more. I divide that into 4 ziploc baggies and freeze to use later in spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and smoothies for AG. It makes it so much easier and faster to take it out of the freezer instead of having to make it right then when I need it.

Homemade breakfast Sandwiches

I found this on Dollar Stretcher . AG's daddy loves these, so I think I'll try this so he can have a quick, but hot breakfast. What a great idea!!

Homemade Breakfast Sandwiches

My husband and I love breakfast sandwiches from fast food
restaurants and the frozen food section of the grocery store.
I found a way to make them for a lot less money, and they are
healthier, too! I whisk 12 eggs with a little bit of milk and
whatever seasonings I feel like using (i.e. red pepper flakes,
salt, pepper, hot sauce, onions, etc.). Then I spray a 13x9
baking dish with cooking spray and pour in the egg mixture.
After baking for 15-20 minutes in a 350-degree oven, I cut
this into 12 squares. Then I put the egg squares on toasted
English muffins, bagels, biscuits, etc. I also get pre-cooked
sausage patties that are thin and fit perfectly on English
muffins from our warehouse club. I add cheese if I feel like
it, making a great breakfast, lunch, or dinner! I usually make
12 at a time and freeze some of them so they are ready to go.
Susie

I'll let you know how they work out!

Menu Plan Monday

Back on track this week. Here it goes:

Sunday-roast with potatoes, carrots, and lima beans

Monday-poppyseed chicken with roasted asparagus

Tuesday-homemade pizza

Wednesday-spaghetti

Thursday- left overs or whatever we can find

Friday and Saturday- eating with the in-laws

Snacks- guacamole, pumpkin bran muffins, smoothies, trail mix

Check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for hundreds more menu plans.

Menu Plan Monday

Erin at $5 Dinners is hosting Menu Plan Monday this week, so go on over there and see what everyone else has cooking this week!

Sunday: grilled pork chops (didn't have these last week as planned b/c it was raining) with sweet potatoes and peas

Monday: rotisserie chicken or oven roasted chicken

Tuesday: homemade pepperoni pizza with spinach pizza sauce


Wednesday: baked chicken with roasted cauliflower and broccoli

Thursday, Friday and Saturday: out to eat in Dallas with some of our Hunan travelmates for a mini reunion-we can't wait to see them all again and see how the girls have all grown and changed.

Snacks: granola bars (these are SO good and won't be staying in the house long since AG's daddy seems to really like them, too! Oh, and I did reduce the amt of sugar in them and next time I'll be replacing some of the flour with whole wheat flour), blueberry muffins, , (AG's daddy requested 2 batches of these to take with us) smoothies, fruit. I will be making granola bars and blueberry muffins to take with us to Dallas since it's hard to give AG store bought snacks that have any nutrition to them-most of them have a dairy product in them~!! Not really sure what we'll do about eating out so much and the dairy allergy, it may be a stressful weekend for this mama!

Here are some pics of the granola bars and blueberry muffins:

Readoption Day

Today, we all went to the courthouse to have AG readopted in the state of AR-this just recognizes the adoption, as it was completed in China. Now, we can get her a birth certificate from AR showing us as her parents. Which will come in handy when we fly to Orlando in May! It will also make things easier when we enroll her in school-that's still several years away-thank God, she's growing up too quickly as it is!

Here is our family today at court


Happy Readoption Day, my beautiful and sweet girl-we love you more than you will ever know!

Wild Olive Tees giveaway

Please go to Wild Olive Tees they are too cute! This one is my favorite! Please read the verse on the back!

They are giving away a $75 gift certificate and are taking entries until April 15th, that's going to be alot of entries. These tees are SO cute! And, to top it off, the owners are adoptive parents of children from China, so, of course, that holds a special place in my heart!

Now go, and good luck!!

Menu Plan Monday

Here is this week's menu:

Sunday: grilled steak and baked potatoes
Monday: baked tilapia and roasted veggies (forwarded from last week)
Tuesday: chicken and rice with green beans
Wednesday: grilled pork chops with potatoes
Thursday: crock pot bb chicken sandwhich with homemade hamburger buns
Friday: crockpot hamburger and potato casserole for AG and grandparents-out to eat for AG's daddy and me!
Saturday: grilled hamburgers and french fries with another veggie

Snacks: applesauce bread, smoothies, orange muffins, fruit

go check out I'm An Organizing Junkie for more menu plans!!

Earth Hour

Are you participating in Earth Hour?? We are and hope you will, too!

Green things I am really wanting

But, I have to pace myself.

I've already replaced buying popsicles with these, which are great for AG's daddy, but way too big for AG. So, I'm going to be on the lookout for smaller ones, maybe these, since they are only two ounces.

The next item on my list are these cool snack bags AG could use these now and I hate carrying those ziploc bags around in her diaper bag. I think I'll probably end up ordering these this month (smile, although I am still researching these b/c I initially like the oil cloth ones, but they have levels of Phthalates are too high to comply with the new standards for items which are going to be sold and are intended to be used by children under 12 years old- so no oil cloth ones for this house! These are all cotton, but I don't think they are waterproof on the inside, which would be nice-so I may still be searching.
Aren't they just adorable, though?!?!

I think these napkins are really cute, but could probably make some myself out of felt-they just wouldn't be as cute, although they also wouldn't be as pricey. Hhmmm, what to do, what to do? Oh, just had a thought, I can check etsy for these, too. I'll report back on that later.

I guess that's enough for now. That's not too bad for a wish list, huh? I can probably swing these items in the near future. What green items are on your wish list??

Menu Plan Monday

First, I'm a day late and a dollar short, ha ha!! Now, be sure to check out Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hundreds of more menu plans.

I guess I should preface this by saying that AG has a casein allergy, so any recipe that calls for milk, butter, or any other dairy product is subsituted in our house. I don't typically cook with cheese unless you can add it once the meal is on your plate. Yes, we tried the vegan cheese, which is what she can eat, but it doesn't melt well, and according to AG's daddy, he isn't going to fight her for it!

Here is our menu plan for this week:

Breakfasts: Cereal-Since AG is 18 months old, she is still eating fortified cereal each morning, with some type of fresh fruit or applesauce. Brian eats whatever cereal on hand, and I eat oatmeal.

Lunches: usually leftovers, or something easy like chicken salad, tuna patties

Dinners:

Sunday- Chicken Chili- recipe below

Monday-spaghetti with spinach marinara sauce and garlic toast

Tuesday- Chicken Fried Rice with fried noodles (AG loves loves these noodles!)

Wednesday- Vegetable or Potato soup-not sure which one yet

Thursday- baked chicken with roasted cauliflower and broccoli

Friday- baked tilapia with crashed potatoes

Saturday-Brian is going to use his new grill, probably pork chops with a baked sweet potato

Snacks for AG:
pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (I used vegan choc chips for AG)
blueberry muffins
smoothies
graham crackers
fruit


Chicken Chili: slightly modified from this link:
3 cups water1 tsp lemon pepper1 tsp ground cumin1 Tbsp olive oil2-3 chicken breasts1 garlic clove1/2 cup chopped onion1 can corn1 or 2 cans of chopped green chiles (I use 1)1 tsp cumin 2-3 Tbsp lime juice2 cans northern white beans (although, I cook dry beans, and use a quart size ziploc bag) Combine water, lemon pepper, 1 tsp cumin, and olive oil and bring to boil. Add chicken and return to low boil, simmer for 20-30 minutes. Remove chicken and cut into pieces, then put it back. Add garlic, onion, corn, chiles, 1 tsp cumin, lime juice, and beans, bring to a boil and simmer until the chicken is completely done. Top with cheese, if you want.

It's been a year

since we first saw AG's beautiful little face. We waited for 26 months to see her and when we did it was love at first sight! Here is a referral picture of her.

And, here she is a few days ago



It's hard to believe this beatiful child has been with us for almost 11 months. We have been SO extremely blessed by her. I can only hope that we are the parents that she needs for us to be. That is something that I pray for all the time. She is such a precious little girl and I am so happy to have her as my daughter!!

Well, I'm back..

So, I've decided to start using this blog again. I had shut it down last March or April, in lieu of posting our updates from China at our other website, since there was some concern for using blogger while in China. I'm not sure that anyone in our group had problems with that, but the other site served our purpose for updating our family and friends. I am planning on closing that one down and getting it all on a cd for AG to have later in life. I have lots of plans for this blog, but we'll see how much of it I actually get done with an 18 month old to chase around all day ;-)